Subject wise Global Events

Transpulmonary Passage of Cancer Cells

Curiosity was shown by our medical forbears in the field of spread of eye melanoma to the liver. Thus, consider that, by 1855, when he presented a case of “Melanotic cancer in various organs,” Sanderson [1] lamented that “The orbits were inadvertently not examined.” Likewise, by 1898, Calvert and Pigg [2] reported a case of melanoma involving numerous organs but had to admit that the excised right eye “was not examined microscopically.” Similarly, when White [3] reported a case and cited others, he stressed that “Probably all these three cases were primary, but they would be much more complete if it could be definitely stated in all of them that the orbit was examined and that the body was carefully searched for moles. There is no mention of any such examination in either Frerichs’ or Block’s, neither did Wickham Legg examine the orbit.” Orbit search was not only reported upon but also theorized upon by Moore [4] as follows (